"Thank you so much," Allison Stratton told us when we dropped off 88 items at Southdale Hospital on April 23, 2018. She praised the creativity, uniqueness and quality of the 70 hats, 8 scarves, 3 blankets, 3 cowls, and 2 shawls. Plus, this batch of donations included 2 fiddlemuffs - items great for fiddling with during a cancer treatment.

See more about Southdale here.

JoAnna with her mom Bernice

In April 2018, we didn't meet up because Team Member JoAnna Keocher's funeral was on Saturday, April 14, the day of the huge spring snow storm in Minnesota. But we did receive a box in the mail with handmade items from Jen R. with 12 hats, a teddy bear and 7 scarves!

We will all dearly miss JoAnna, the woman who made hats for others while being treated for her own cancer. She left us suddenly on Easter morning when we were all hopeful she was getting better. Her smile and bright attitude in the face of her own struggle inspired us all. She is not forgotten.

More about JoAnna. 

JoAnna G. Keocher, age 42 of North Branch passed away unexpectedly on Sunday, April 1, 2018 at Fairview Lakes Regional Medical Center in Wyoming.

JoAnna was born on July 16, 1975 in Forest Lake to parents Millard “Sam” and Bernice (Slater) Fynboh. She attended schools in North Branch and graduated in 1993. She married Brian Keocher on September 16, 1996 in McGregor, Minnesota. JoAnna worked in the office at Wyoming Machine for several years. She loved scrapbooking, being a Dance Mom to her daughter, Samantha and she was very involved with Team Yarn in Blaine knitting hats for cancer patients.

JoAnna is survived by her husband, Brian, daughter, Samantha; mother, Bernice Foster of Amery, WI and her sister, Susan (Bruce) Parks of Wilsall, MT and special friends, Troy and Laurie Franklin of North Branch. She is preceded in death by her father, Millard “Sam” Fynboh.